Ph.D., Department of History
University of Chicago2015
Dissertation: "Art of Intransigence: Soviet Composers and Art Music Censorship, 1945-1957" (Committee: Sheila Fitzpatrick (chair), Tara Zahra, Leora Auslander, Faith Hillis, Robert Bird)
M.A., Department of History
University of Chicago2015
M.A., Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, concentration in History
University of Chicago2007
M.Mus., Trumpet Performance
Mannes College of Music2003
B.A., summa cum laude, Department of Music
University of California, Los Angeles2001
Assistant Professor of European History
Washington & Jefferson College2021-
Associated Scholar
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Pittsburgh2021-
Visiting Assistant Professor of European History
Washington & Jefferson College2019-2021
Visiting Assistant Professor of the Core Curriculum
Lewis & Clark College2018-2019
Visiting Scholar in History
Reed College2018-2019
Visiting Assistant Professor of European History and Humanities
Reed College2016-2018
Lecturer in Modern European History
Northern Arizona University2015-2016
Fellow, Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill2014-2017
"Nationally Informed: The Politics of National Minority Music during Late Stalinism"
Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas2019
vol 67, no. 3 (2019), 372-400
"Negotiating 'Historical Truth': Art, Authority, and Iurii Shaporin's The Decembrists"
Journal of Musicology2016
vol. 33, no. 3 (Summer 2016), 277-331
"Creative Resilience: Soviet Composers' Strategic Relationship with the State Censor (A Tale of Two Sofias)"
Perspectives on Europe2016
vol. 46, no. 1 (Spring 2016), 94-99
"Modeling the New Collectivity" and "Modeling the New Individual"
Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary: Soviet Children's Books and Graphic Art, ed. Robert Bird (Chicago: University of Chicago Library, 2011), 19-21
(Book awarded the 2012 American Library Association Leab Exhibition Award). Expanded articles available on the exhibition website: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/soviet-imaginary/
"Creating Crimea: Revision, Reclamation, and the Operatic Politics of Post-Soviet Empire"
Journal Article
Creative Comrades: Censorship and Collaboration in Late-Stalinist Music
Book Manuscript
"Review of Russian Music Since 1917: Reappraisal & Rediscovery"
Russian Review2019
vol. 78, no. 1 (January 2019), 148-149
"Review of Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics"
Journal of the American Musicological Society2017
vol. 70, no. 1 (Spring 2017), 267-271
ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) Project Development Grant
2021-2022
Robert C Tucker/Stephen F Cohen Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and History
2016
Mellon-Council for European Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship in European Studies
2014-2015
FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) Academic Year Fellowship
2010-2011
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant
2009-2010
FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) Summer Fellowship
2007
Summer Scholarship Fund for Faculty Research
Reed College2017
Stillman Drake Award for Faculty Research
Reed College2016-2017
Russian History Fellowship
University of Chicago2012
Kunstadter Research Fellowship
University of Chicago2012, 2011
Social Sciences Division Fellowship Summer Grant
University of Chicago2009, 2008
Russian History Summer Research Grant
University of Chicago2008
Graduate Aid Initiative Fellowship
University of Chicago2007-2012
Unendowed Scholarship
Social Sciences Division, University of Chicago2006-2007
Golden Key National Honors Society
2001
Valedictorian
School of the Arts and Architecture, University of California, Los Angeles2001
"Censorship in Late Stalinist Classical Music"
SRB Podcast, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh2020
"Operatic Agitation: Crimean Annexation and the Politics of Performance in Post-Soviet Russia"
Department of History, Lewis & Clark College2018
"Building a Better Past: Iurii Shaporin's The Decembrists as Master Socialist Realist Opera"
College of Music, Michigan State University2015
"What's Real about Socialist Realism? Stalinist Musical Aesthetics Revealed"
Department of Russian Studies, Davidson College2014
"Roots of the Russian Revolution"
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago2011
"Russian Revolution 101: Historical Lessons for Russia Today"
Public lecture, Deschutes Public Library, Bend, Oregon2019
"Nationalisms and the New Right in Twenty-First Century Europe"
Public panel discussion, Reed College2017
"XRAY in The Morning"
Radio broadcast panel discussion of the Trump administration's Russia scandal, XRAY FM, Portland, Oregon2017
"Tuning Up, Scaling Down: Expression in Shostakovich's Late Quartets"
Pre-concert lecture, Krannert Center for Performing Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign2011
"Revolutionizing Aesthetics: Soviet Composers in the Early Zhdanovshchina"
British Association for Slavic and East European Studies/Study Group for Russian and East European Music Annual Conference: Music and Revolution, Goldsmiths University of London (London, UK)2017
"The Personal is the Petitionary: Personalization of Soviet Censorship in One Composer’s Letters to the Committee on Arts Affairs”
A “Memory Revolution”: Soviet History Through the Lens of Personal Documents; International Center for the History and Sociology of WWII and Its Consequences, Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)2017
"Creating Crimea: Opera and Cultural Empire at the Post-Soviet Boundary”
After the Soviet Collapse: Transformations in the Music and Culture of the New Post-Soviet States and Eastern Europe; Cambridge University Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Cambridge University (Cambridge, UK)2017
“Socialist Realism Revisited: Aesthetic Transformation and the All-Union Meeting on Opera and Ballet"
Musical Legacies of State Socialism: Revising Narratives about Post-World War II Europe; Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Belgrade, Serbia)2015
“Comrades in Conflict: Compositional Appraisals as Professional Power Play in the Early Postwar Soviet Union"
Russian and Soviet Music: Reappraisal and Rediscovery; University of Durham (Durham, UK)2011
"Vice President-Deisgnated Roundtable: Academic Precarity: Labor, Race, Gender, and More"
Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) National Convention2021
"Roundtable: Commemorating the Life and Work of Stephen F. Cohen"
ASEEES National Convention2021
"'I'm Not Very Strong in the Music of This People, Though I Am a Member": Soviet Jewish Composers and Nationality in the Late Stalinist Era"
ASEEES National Convention2020
"Necessary Nationality: Soviet Minority Composers' Experiences in the All-Union Arena"
ASEEES National Convention2019
“The Music is the Message: Reassessing Soviet Music’s Political Function in the Zhdanovshchina"
ASEEES National Convention2017
“Too Big to Fail: Hope, Despair, and Cultural Politics in Herman Zhukovskii’s With All My Heart"
Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies (REECAS) North West Conference: 100 Years after Red October: Historical Legacies and New Beginnings in Culture and Politics2017
"Krym nash!: Operatic Claims on Crimea’s Identity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia”
ASEEES National Convention2016
“Creative Resilience: Soviet Composers’ Strategic Relationship to the State Censor”
23rd International Conference of Europeanists, Council for European Studies2016
“Creative Correspondence: Soviet Composers’ Petitions to the State Censor”
ASEEES National Convention2015
"Roundtable: Musical Facts, Musical Fictions"
ASEEES National Convention2015
“Negotiations and Love Songs: Correspondence of the Committee on Arts Affairs”
Midwest Russian History Workshop2015
“An Incomplete Aesthetic: Applying Socialist Realism to Music”
Chicagoland Kruzhok2015
“‘Tchaikovsky Never Knew Such a Complex Task’: Defining Operatic Socialist Realism during the Zhdanovshchina"
ASEEES National Convention2014
“Settling the Score: Censorship as Co-Authorship in Iurii Shaporin’s Opera Dekabristy”
ASEEES National Convention2013
“Negotiating History: Art, Authority, and Iurii Shaporin’s Dekabristy”
Music and Power: Historical Problems and Perspectives in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia; Miami University of Ohio2013
“The Heart of the Matter: Censorship and Cultural Politics in Zhukovskii’s With All My Heart"
American Musicological Society Annual Convention2012
"Roundtable: Positioning Music in the Teaching of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian History, Literature and Culture"
ASEEES National Convention2012
“(Over)Producing the Work: The Case of Ot vsego serdtsa”
Midwest Russian History Workshop2012
“Particular Perception: Consonance and Dissonance in Lay and Professional Audience Responses to Ot vsego serdtsa"
ASEEES National Convention2011
“Absent Presence: Shostakovich’s (Non)Appearances in the Composers’ Union’s Consultative Sections in the First Postwar Decade”
Shostakovich: The Quartets in Context; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign2011
“‘I Resolutely, Definitely, Honestly and Heartily Do Not Like This Work!’: Creative Consultations in the Composers’ Union, 1945-1950”
ASEEES National Convention2010
“Korsakov’s Complaint: The Forging of an Unlikely Musical Rebel”
Harvard University Graduate Student Music Forum Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Music Conference; Harvard University2007
"Panel: The Musical Negotiation of Russian Imperial Identities"
ASEEES National Convention2020
“Panel: Performing Identity: Music, Nation, Displacement and Memory”
ASEEES National Convention2018
"Panel: Networks and Cultural Production in War-time and the Post-Stalinist Soviet Union"
ASEEES National Convention2017
“A Century Ago: How the Russian Revolution, and the Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, Shaped Archives in Russia and Ukraine” Annual Meeting
Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting2017
Washington & Jefferson College
Upper Division Seminars:
Capstone Seminar: Rethinking Europe
Music and Politics in 20th c Europe
The Cold War
Russian Revolutions from Peter to Putin
Cultural Construction in the Soviet Empire
Lower Division Seminars:
Big Ideas in Modern Europe
The Stalinist Experience
Revolution! Europe at the Barricades
First Year Seminar: Speaking Truth to Power
Introductory Courses:
The Soviet Union and Modern Russia
From Kievan Rus to Imperial Russia
Europe's Long 20th Century
Making the Modern World: 19th Century Europe
Honors Theses Advised:
"Le Métissage Past and Present: France's Construction of Racial Hierarchy and the Marginalization of the Franco-Algerian Métis Community" (2019-2020)
Prior Institutions
Upper Division Seminars:
Russia: From the USSR to Today
Lower Division Seminars:
Modern European Humanities
History of European Civilization I and II
Power, Identity, Resistance
Introductory Courses:
Exploration and Discovery: Stalinism through Media
Exploration and Discovery: Speaking Up, Speaking Out, Speaking Together"
Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean
Development of Europe since 1650
Honors Theses Advised:
"An End to the 'Jewish Question'?: The Soviet Nationalities Policy and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast'" (2018-2019)
"Sonic Inscriptions: Re-sounding the Phonograph in American Culture" (2017-2018)
"Punching Hitler in the Face: Navigating Representation and Identity in Superhero Comics" (2017-2018)
"Necessity and Freedom: The Contradictions of Soviet Socialism, 1917-1933" (2016-2017)
"Biafran Uncertainties: Challenges to the Norms and Structure of International Humanitarian Aid, 1967-1970" (2016-2017)
Teaching Fields
Russian, Soviet, and Post-Soviet history, Soviet Central Asia, European history, cultural and social history, arts and resistance/revolution, comparative Cold War culture, European avant-gardes, socialist aesthetics, empire and cultural hegemony
Co-founder and President
Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Music Study Group2010-2020
Editor
Reviews and Critical Commentary (CritCom)2015-2016
Published by the Council for European Studies at Columbia University
Initiator and Coordinator
History Research Workshop, Northern Arizona University2015-2016
Graduate Student Representative
Faculty Search Committee, Soviet History, University of Chicago2012-2013
Graduate Student Member-At-Large
American Musicological Society (AMS) Cold War and Music Study Group2012-2015
Coordinator
Midwest Russian History Workshop2009, 2012
Inaugural Coordinator
University of Chicago Interdisciplinary Russian Studies Workshop2011-2012
Coordinator
University of Chicago Russian History Workshop2008-2009
Organizational Assistant
Workshop Conference on Popular Music in 20th-Century Russia and the Soviet Union, University of Chicago2007
Peer Reviewer
Journal of Musicology, Music & Politics, Studies in East European Thought
Member
Faculty Development Committee2021-2022
Coordinator
Faculty Research Colloquium2020-2021
Member
African-American History Search Committee2020-2021
Member
Asian History Search Committee2020-2021
Soviet Environmental History In Action
Reed College2018
(With Evgenii Bershtein) Two days of public guest lectures and classroom visits at Reed College by Soviet Environmental historian and Reed alum Andy Bruno. Conceptualized, organized, budgeted, and publicized all events.
Nationalisms and the New Right in Twenty-First Century Europe
Reed College2017
(With Radhika Natarajan) Public panel discussion of politics and contemporary events in Europe, held at Reed College. Conceptualized, organized, and publicized the event, which included historians from Reed and Portland State University. Gave a prepared lecture-presentation on post-Soviet Russia and participated in discussion and Q&A.
Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary
University of Chicago2011
(With Robert Bird et al.) Exhibition of early Soviet children’s literature, presented in conjunction with The Soviet Experience, a citywide presentation of Soviet arts led by the University of Chicago. Wrote articles for the ASI website and published catalog and co-curated the ASI exhibit space in the Special Collections Gallery, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago. Preparatory work 2007-2011, exhibition August-December 2011.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko Festival
University of Chicago2007
(With Bernard Wasserstein) Four days of public poetry performances, film presentations, guest lecture, and classroom visits by Mr. Yevtushenko at the University of Chicago. Conceptualized, organized, budgeted, and publicized all events, accompanied and assisted Mr. Yevtushenko during his visit.
Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
American Historical Association (AHA)
Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS)
American Musicological Society (AMS)
Russian
Excellent reading and speaking ability
French
Good reading ability
German
Moderate reading ability
Sheila Fitzpatrick
Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor of History Emerita, University of Chicago
A18 Brennan MacCallum Building, Department of History, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; 61-2 9351 2555; sheila.fitzpatrick@sydney.edu.au
David Kieran
Associate Professor of History, Washington & Jefferson College
Department of History, Washington & Jefferson College, 60 S. Lincoln St., Washington, PA 15301; 724-503-1001 x6265; dkieran@washjeff.edu
Mary Ashburn Miller
Associate Professor of History and Humanities, Reed College
Department of History, Reed College 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR 97202; 503-517-7685; mamiller@reed.edu
Tara Zahra
Professor of East European History, University of Chicago
Department of History, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637; 773-834-2599; tzahra@uchicago.edu
Faith Hillis
Associate Professor of Russian History, University of Chicago
Department of History, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637; 773-702-5601; hillis@uchicago.edu
Leora Auslander
Professor of European Social History and Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization, University of Chicago
Department of History, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637; 773-702-7940; lausland@uchicago.edu
